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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), OPM’s acting director and other federal government parties filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 seeking to stay a trial court’s preliminary injunction directing the reinstatement of more than 16,000 probationary workers from six federal agencies who were fired en masse.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Supreme Court vacated an appraisal award in a coverage dispute over windstorm damage to an insured’s property, finding that it is “quite evident” that the insured’s appointed appraiser “had a direct financial interest in the award” because he was the sole owner and operator of a contracting business that repaired the insured’s home and the assignee of the insured’s claim under her homeowners insurance policy.
ATLANTA — The chief judge of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the “voluntary corrective actions” by the judge overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation who faced a complaint that her encouragement of women to apply for leadership positions in the MDL constituted impermissible bias and judicial misconduct “warrant the conclusion of this proceeding.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, turning down the request to consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong for applying a local rule that allows it to affirm holdings from federal judges and agencies in single-word rulings; as such, the high court left untouched a federal judge’s finding that defendant banking organizations did not infringe on the company’s patents.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 denied three petitions filed by Union Pacific Railroad Co. challenging rulings by three different federal circuits, which all held that American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah tolling ends for class members only when they have been “unambiguously excluded” from the class.
SEATTLE — A drug manufacturer labeling an over-the-counter cough medicine as nondrowsy does not fall within the statutory safe harbor of the Washington Consumer Protection Act (CPA), the state Supreme Court said in answering a certified question from a district court.
BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland on March 20 granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting access to Social Security Administration (SSA) data for anonymous individuals associated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) while calling the individuals’ actions “a fishing expedition” and stating that the federal government has not “identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government.”
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 20 affirmed a lower court ruling that dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by a remanufacturer of ink cartridges accusing Amazon.com Inc. and its subsidiaries of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), the Lanham Act and other laws by allowing third-party sellers to post allegedly deceptive listings for recycled printer ink cartridges, thereby diverting business from authentic ink cartridge recyclers, finding that “to the extent claims” against Amazon “survive” the Communications Decency Act (CDA), the remanufacturer “has failed to allege an actionable false statement by Amazon.”
PASADENA, Calif. — The majority of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 20 affirmed a district court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an auto insurer after determining that the auto insurer did not act in bad faith in failing to settle a claim on behalf of its insured because the third-party claimant failed to turn over his medical records despite numerous requests from the auto insurer.
MIAMI — A Florida appeals court panel held that hotel insureds are not owed business interruption coverage in the absence of “direct physical loss” or “damage” to their properties, affirming a lower court’s ruling in favor of the insurer in a coverage dispute arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas appeals panel on March 20 reversed a motion to dismiss a third-party complaint in a condominium roof construction defect case, agreeing with an appointed qualified inspector that the general contractor failed to submit a proper affidavit claiming that it produced a certificate of merit backing its legal position.